


A Trip in Time

by drinkingbleach, Pass_The_Slow_Clap



Series: PJO/MMU Crossover - A Trip in Time [1]
Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Hazel Wong POV, Lotus Hotel and Casino, Multi, PJO/MMU crossover, POV Hazel Wong, Set After DSS, Set after PJO
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29091723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drinkingbleach/pseuds/drinkingbleach, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pass_The_Slow_Clap/pseuds/Pass_The_Slow_Clap
Summary: After being unknowingly stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, the MMU gang are found by scouts for Camp Half Blood, and find themselves in the middle of their most personal case yet. Can they solve it in time to go back to the 1930s and prevent a murder?
Relationships: Alexander Arcady & George Mukherjee, Alexander Arcady & George Mukherjee & Daisy Wells & Hazel Wong, Alexander Arcady/Hazel Wong, Amina El Maghrabi/Daisy Wells, Daisy Wells & Hazel Wong, George Mukherjee/Lavinia Temple, Katherine "Kitty" Freebody/Rebecca "Beanie" Martineau
Series: PJO/MMU Crossover - A Trip in Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187702
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Glancing apprehensively at the hotel in front of us, I peered at the map in Daisy’s hands. It clearly detailed the building we stood before, but something about it felt off. To the untrained eye, it seemed unordinary and plain, yet friendly - but something irked me about the way that music trailed from open windows yet, as we stood for a few minutes or so, no one came out from the hotel.  
‘Daisy?’ I asked, turning towards her as she stepped forward. ‘Something doesn’t quite feel right.’  
‘Psh, don’t worry so much Hazel, you’re seeing things that aren’t there. Now come on, Amina and the others must already be inside.’ With that she continued walking, and I had no choice but to follow her.

__________

Handing a drink over to Daisy, I sat back down at the architecture game and flicked a couple buttons. We had only been here a couple weeks but it already felt natural to me, and I cleared the next level with only mild difficulty. Lavinia took a seat next to us and muttered something over my shoulder.  
‘Beanie thinks she’s being followed’ she grumbled, rolling her eyes ‘they’re dressed strange but they’re not that suspicious’ Kitty nodded.  
‘she thought the same thing about that off guy with green eyes we saw yesterday but we haven’t seen him since have we?’ I racked my brain and vaguely remembered a boy a little younger than us, with a blonde girl, and they did seem suspicious, but not all that memorable. Huh. I blinked, clearing the fog from my brain. I was usually a lot better at remembering things. It was probably the lack of murder cases making my skills go soft.  
Beanie hurried towards us with Amina, Alexander and George in tow and as I watched them George began to speak. ‘Beanie’s right, there’s definitely someone following her, three people actually’  
Daisy stiffened with excitement ‘What do they look like?’ she said, elbowing me to grab my casebook from my bag.  
‘A burly girl with short, dark hair, a boy with ginger hair and a younger boy with dark hair.’ He paused. ‘I could be wrong, but it looked as though the girl had a knife.’ My head snapped up. Kitty and Beanie looked stricken while Amina, George and Alexander looked pensive. Daisy however, had a spark in her eye I hadn’t realised she’d been missing.  
Straightening out the folds of her dress, she stood up and glanced at us through the corners of her eyes, communicating a silent message. I grabbed my satchel and stepped away from my chair, as the others came to a realisation and started to do the same. Kitty gazed longingly in the direction of her hotel room, but Daisy glared at her sharply. In a matter of minutes, we left our seats, slipping through the shadows.

However it seemed that we weren’t the only ones with a talent for moving in the shadows. As we neared the entrance I noticed a strange boy sitting by the doors. Not just strange in the way he dressed, but I also had the feeling I’d seen him before. George gasped almost imperceptibly, but Lavinia - whose hand was on his arm - jumped quite noticeably. Beanie pulled on Daisy’s sleeve anxiously but she kept walking, confident that she could walk past undetected. As soon as she crossed paths with him he stood, and I had then realised where I had seen him before.  
‘Nico?’ Beanie asked,in the same state of recognition as me. ‘We thought you’d gone with that awful old lawyer! Where’s Bianca?’ She added, stopping when a flash of sadness crossed his face. He flicked some non-existent dust off his jeans.  
‘Bianca, she, she’s gone’ Seeing our expressions he held up a hand ‘but that was a while back, I’ve come to terms with it, and right now I need you guys to come with me.’ I was hesitant, and I looked to Beanie, who knew him best. She looked unsure, but spoke up.  
‘I trust him’ Was all she said. Then she stepped forward and pressed a small statue into Nico’s hand. ‘Here, you forgot this last time.’  
Nico’s expression was a whirlwind of expressions that I couldn’t place.  
‘Zeus’ he said, closing his hand around the figurine ‘Greek god of the sky, ruler of Olympus’ He pocketed it and looked back to us, something softened in his expression as he looked at Daisy and Amina’s intertwined hands. He looked to the double doors, motioning for us to follow him and we stepped out of the Lotus into the sunlight.

__________

I had to blink to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.  
The cars clogging the streets looked like something you could only imagine, or read about in a dystopian novel. Buildings as tall as the mountains around Fallingford stretched for as far as the eye could see. Thousands of people of all shapes and sizes rushed about in brightly coloured clothing. When I gasped at the sight of it all, it felt like there was smoke clogging my lungs.  
I glanced at the others. Beanie clung to Kitty. The Honourable Daisy Wells was at a loss for words, squeezing Amina’s hand for reassurance. Beside me, Alex stared ahead, trying to process this world that none of us could even dream of.  
George and Lavinia stood hand in hand, in awe. Lavinia turned to Nico, who was dressed from head to toe in dark clothing. ‘Nico’, she said, a quiver in her voice, ‘what is this?’  
Nico glanced at us all, his expression unreadable. ‘The year is 2010. Welcome to Las Vegas.’  
I don’t know what I found more shocking, the fact that we had only been in the hotel for a couple weeks and had somehow managed to miss 70 years, or that we had ended up on the other side of the globe. From the looks of horror on the others faces, I assumed they felt the same way. Nico’s stone cold poker face broke, small shards of empathy cracking through. ‘It’s a lot to take in’, he said quietly. ‘I’ve been out now for a couple years, and sometimes I still wake up and think it’s 1940’.

Nico looked like he was going to tell us more, when he suddenly stopped and turned on his heel. Two people were sprinting down the street towards us. They stopped in front of us, and I got a good look at them.  
There was a tall girl, wearing a sleeveless orange top that showed off her bulging muscles. Her hair was a mousy brown, short and spiky, and she glared at us like we were trying to kill her. Beside her was a shorter boy, maybe two years older than us, with an awkward half-limp and a funny goatee growing at his chin. He wore an orange t-shirt. Both him and the girl’s top said the same thing: Camp Half Blood.  
The boy waved at Nico. He turned to us, and said:  
‘Welcome to the present! I’m Grover, and this’, he said, gesturing at the girl, ‘is Clarisse La Rue. She’s not as scary as she looks. We’re here to bring you to a place where you’ll be safe until we figure out what happened to you.’  
Daisy stepped forward.  
‘Who are you and how on Earth did we get here?’ she demanded, raising her voice over the unnaturally loud cacophony of city sound. Grover scratched the back of his head  
‘I’m not sure we’re the best people to explain that. The best way for us to show you is for you to come with us.’ he replied apologetically.

‘Forgive us for not trusting someone who wears that many knives’ quipped Daisy smoothly. George snickered,  
‘It does seem a bit excessive’ he amended. Lavinia snorted,  
‘I don’t know you guys, if I had access to that many knives I’d carry some of them with me’ she argued. Clarisse nodded, pointing a short dagger in our direction,  
‘Feisty pants is right, better safe than sorry. Now hurry up, the longer we stay out here the more danger we’re in’ she warned, ushering us towards the alley by the side of the hotel building. At this side, the sun cast looming shadows that fell over us like a cold blanket.  
‘Come on Ghost Boy, do your stuff’ Clarisse commanded. Nico whistled sharply, the sound chillingly low the shade of the alleyway. Suddenly a mass of fur melted out of the shadows, and I started instinctively, rearing back. I heard a soft gasp as the wall of fur twisted to form the largest dog I had ever seen. It was the size of a small shed, with fur as dark as a raven’s feathers. Nico beckoned to it,  
‘Come here girl, we need a ride back to camp’ he coaxed, and I backed up into Kitty as the towering creature bounded over to us in large leaps that made the stone slabs of the pavement rumble. He looked back to us, placing a hand on the massive dog. ‘Well? Are you coming or not?’  
We crept across the pavement hesitantly, trying not to make any sudden movements. Daisy placed a hand on the dog looking as confident as she could muster, and we soon followed. The next thing we knew, the shadows of the alley were swarming towards us and wrapping the world in swathes of black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy placed a hand on the dog looking as confident as she could muster, and we soon followed. The next thing we knew, the shadows of the alley were swarming towards us and wrapping the world in swathes of black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Via on the mmu discord server for working on this with me!

Feeling the cold dissipate from my lungs, I stumbled out of the darkness and blinked dark spots out of my eyes. I grasped Alexander’s hand tightly to make sure I was seeing things clearly. The futuristic cityscape had faded away and we were standing in the shadow of a large hall, filled with rows of benches. Behind us was a ring of large cabins, and a few people milled about them without sparing too many glances towards us. I looked to Daisy, who seemed just as baffled as I was. Grover coughed nervously.  
‘Welcome to Camp Half Blood’ He said, fiddling with the reed pipes strung around his neck. ‘We’ll take you to the Big House now.’  
As we walked I drank in my surroundings, internally mapping out the ring of cabins. A few people looked at us strangely, but not as many as I would have expected. I took note of the river that ran by the path, and my hand itched to outline what I saw in my casebook. It made me realise that we really had been cooped up in the Lotus for some time, and I longed to detect again.

Clarisse ground to a halt and I craned my head up to look at the building more clearly. It was an old, homely looking blue building with a wooden porch. As we stood there, two campers wandered out, talking and gesturing to each other. A tall boy with black hair walked up to us.  
‘Clarisse, you’re back! Travis bet you wouldn’t be back until at least next week so I figured he might’ve messed with your fuel tank or something’ He said, drawing the normally stoic girl into a hug. She patted him on the back, cheeks tinged with red. Daisy nudged me, mouthing romance, however that seemed somewhat hypocritical, considering she was still holding Amina’s hand.

‘O-kay that’s enough Chris’ Clarisse muttered, stepping out of his hold ‘I have to take the new lot to Chiron and Mr D’  
He grinned at her, but stepped aside, bowing dramatically to let us pass. Kitty giggled, and we filtered past him into the Big House.  
I looked around me at the room we had walked into. It was a warm, with much of the decor that I was used to, with dark, rich tones of brown and red, and a fire roaring in the grate. However, above the mantelpiece hung a leopard's head, which, as we watched, blinked at us drowsily. A man in leopard print clothes traipsed through another doorway, and at the sight of us he frowned, sagging into one of the armchairs. He waved his hand, and suddenly there was a plush sofa, wide enough for all of us.  
‘Ch-i-ron’ he moaned, taking a sip of his drink ‘Claire Raymond is back and she’s multiplied.’ Daisy’s mouth dropped open and she looked irate. She moved to step forward when we heard the sound of wheels squeaking across the floor.  
Turning towards the sound of the noise, I saw a man in a wheelchair, who looked at us thoughtfully, before wheeling himself over to the man in leopard print.  
‘I think this group deserves a little more than just the standard orientation video, don’t you Mr D?’ He inquired. Mr D shrugged, lazing further into the armchair and slumping. Chiron sighed and turned back towards us. ‘Please sit.’ He offered, waving a hand at the sofa in front of us.

With a cautious glance to us, Daisy perched lightly on the arm of the sofa, fighting keep her Daisy-ish composure even though we were all anything but at that moment.  
‘I think we definitely deserve more than the average explanation, seeing as you all have somehow transported us nearly a century into the future and halfway across the world!’ she huffed, once we had all sat down.  
‘Your future, our past, what does it matter, I’m trying to have a nap here’ groaned Mr D, somehow slumping even further, so that he was so far reclined he was practically horizontal. I felt the inner deportment student in me wince and I fought not to cringe, instead turning my attention back to Chiron.  
He cleared his throat.  
‘Have you children heard of the Greek gods?’ Daisy stiffened with ire at being called a child, but it was outweighed by her desire to beat us to the answer.  
‘You mean Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena and such of course?’ she answered quickly, with a barely concealed smug smile to George and I. I sighed lightly, looking to him and he shook his head in agreement.  
‘Correct’ Chiron replied, drawing our attention back to him. ‘The thing is, those myths are very real. And those deities exist in this civilisation, going around, and having relationships with mortals. If those mortals have children, the children are demigods. Half-human, half-god. Just like you.’  
All at once, there were a series of gasps. I felt somewhat faint. I heard Chiron’s voice distantly, as if I was underwater ‘ … not your fault … more danger now… ’ and then nothing.

__________

As I came to, I felt a warmth on my eyelids. I blinked them open, and it took me a moment to realise I was looking into the concerned face of Alexander. It took me another to realise that the warm glow that surrounded him was no longer in my head. Wait.

I flew backwards, my eyes shocking further open, and took in my surroundings. Daisy was looking at me with a frown on her face, with Amina and the girls behind her looking worried. George was apparently the only other person besides me to realise that Alexander was glowing and was looking at him astonishedly. I sat up, shaking the last fibres of heaviness from my mind.  
‘Please tell me I did not just faint’ I implored as loudly as I dared. Daisy cracked a smile, and laughed quietly.  
‘I think you know the answer to that Watson’ she replied, poking me. Suddenly her eyes flicked up, and she noticed what George was still trying to process. ‘Oh my days, Longarms are you glowing?!’ Alexander’s eyes flicked up from he and he looked at Daisy quizzically.  
‘I- Daisy what are you talking about? Of course I’m not’ he began, before he looked down and realised that he was, in fact, glowing. He leaned against the back of the sofa, rubbing his forehead awkwardly. Then he remembered Chiron. ‘What you said, about the gods, does that have something to do with this?’ he asked. Chiron nodded.  
‘I thought we might have to wait until this afternoon at least to find out who your godly parents were but it seems your parent is extremely forward. Step this way please young man.’ He said, gesturing to another door.

Alexander shakily got to his feet, and we walked into the room that Chiron had indicated. It was filled with a few beds, and people were being tended to their injuries in a few of them. As we watched, a gash in someone’s arm closed, then scarred, then disappeared in the space of a few seconds. Alexander closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the glow was brighter than before, and a sun symbol floated in the air above his head. Chiron cleared his throat and began to speak and the people in the makeshift hospital glanced up, and at Chiron’s words began to kneel.  
‘All hail Alexander Arcady, son of Apollo.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How I wanted to write the Lavinia & Clarisse dynamic:  
> Lavinia: Why do you have so many knives?  
> Clarisse: To stab annoying people  
> Lavinia: . . .  
> Lavinia: Can I borrow one of those-  
> George: lavINIA NO-
> 
> How I wrote it:  
> Clarisse: knife  
> Lavinia: knife


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexander closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the glow was brighter than before, and a sun symbol floated in the air above his head. Chiron cleared his throat and began to speak and the people in the makeshift hospital glanced up, and at Chiron’s words began to kneel.  
> ‘All hail Alexander Arcady, son of Apollo.’

After Alexander was claimed, one of the medics walked up to us. He introduced himself.  
‘I’m Will Solace, head camper of the Apollo cabin’ he said with a dramatic bow and a little flourish. Then he looked to Chiron ‘Should I get Alexander settled in to the Apollo cabin?’ he asked. Chiron shook his head.  
‘Maybe after the tour, it’ll give you some time to finish up here in the infirmary’ he answered, and Alexander walked back towards us, looking somewhat relieved. The glow that surrounded him flickered, then went out. I put an arm around him and turned to Chiron.  
‘You said something about a tour?’  
__________

As we stepped outside Chiron looked at the somewhat bumpy path with dismay. He sighed and said  
‘I had hoped to delay this a little longer, but this will be much easier out of the wheelchair.’ With that he stood up, the old blanket covering his legs falling off to reveal the lower body of a horse. Chiron was a centaur. George stiffened and I could tell he’d realised something big, but before he could speak, Lavinia blurted out the worst nonsense I have ever heard.  
Looking quite like she wasn’t thinking, she said ‘Can centaurs slap their own butts to go faster?’ and I watched everyone in the range of hearing visibly cringe. George looked incredibly offended.  
‘Lavinia do you know who this is? You can’t just say stuff like that to Chiron, immortal trainer of heroes, including Achilles and Heracles!’ He burst out, immediately going red. Chiron coughed awkwardly, nodding and looking in the direction of the cabins.  
‘Right, yes, well, thank you. On with the tour.’

Chiron’s voice faded into the background as I looked around me at the camp, silently committing as much as I could to memory. We strolled past a clear lake filled with canoeing campers and ethereal sea spirits Chiron described as naiads, before leaving the river to enter the ring of cabins. Chiron clicked to a stop, looking back at us.  
‘When you are claimed at the campfire tonight, these are the cabins you will be staying in.’ he informed us. The cabins were large house like buildings that stood in many shapes and colours. One was made of carved stone, another was decorated with vibrant grapevines and another cabin caught the light of the sun, almost seeming to glow.

The wind picked up and, pricking an ear to the sound, I heard shouts carried on the wind.  
‘What’s over that way?’ I asked, tilting my head towards the sound. Chiron looked in the direction of the sound and picked at one of the threads of his blazer.  
‘That way … is the training arena’ he sighed. ‘I believe another fight has broken out.’  
We crossed the cabins, walking rapidly to the training arena when Daisy suddenly barged into me, knocking me to the ground. I sat up in the grass, looking at her in annoyance.  
‘Daisy, what-’ I began, when I noticed her horrified expression. In the stone wall behind us, there was a sizeable crater and a large patch of soot and smoke. Daisy looked back at me, her golden hair almost smoking. Chiron frowned more angrily than I had ever seen the placid teacher, and he picked up speed, galloping the rest of the distance to the training arena.

As I lay there for an extra minute processing the fireball that smashed into the cabin, I vaguely heard the sounds from the arena getting louder. I got to my feet and ran after Chiron with the others.

We ducked for cover as another purple fireball flew through the air of the arena. In the middle of the circular field, two campers were having a face-off, and it didn’t look all that much like training to me. The camper who had shot the fire had hands wreathed in purple smoke. She, like many of the other campers, wore an orange T-shirt, but she wore pink denim overalls on top of them that matched her short, pink hair. She scowled at the camper across from her, who was a dark, curly haired girl wearing an orange top with a black jacket, or what remained of it. Her jacket looked ragged and badly burned, and from the way that Daisy seemed slightly more composed I could tell that she also knew this was the source of her anger.

As we stood, watching, the dark haired girl raised a hand from the arena floor, and where her palm had rested erupted a flurry of vines, that writhed on the ground like a snake, before shooting towards the pink haired girl. She raised her smoke-wreathed hands and blasted the vines, sending thorns flying across the tense air of the arena. Beanie was still crouched on the floor, looking fearful when it seemed Lavinia had had enough.  
‘HEY!’ She yelled, from our position on the sidelines. The fighting girls stopped for a moment, looking at Lavinia, before ignoring her to resume their altercation. I winced. Lavinia does not do ignored.  
She stormed forward into the centre of the arena, ignoring our protests. She scowled at the bickering girls, before clapping her hands to the floor. The smoke around the pink haired girl’s hands dissipated, and the bronze sword the dark haired girl had drawn clattered to the floor. We rushed to Lavinia, who was swaying slightly n her feet.  
‘Stupid … fighting’ she muttered ‘No better things to do?’ Kitty giggled quietly.

‘Are you okay Lavinia?’ she asked concernedly, as Lavinia blinked the haze out of her eyes.  
‘Of course, I’m fine’ she replied gruffly, blinking blearily at Chiron who had moved over to us. ‘D’this happn all the time?’ she mumbled, shading her eyes from the sun. Chiron sighed.  
‘A little too often I’m afraid. However I owe you my thanks, Miss Temple, for stopping this fight before it escalated too far.’ Then he noticed something we had yet to see. ‘I do believe that incredible stunt pleased your father enough for him to claim you’ he smiled, for above Lavinia’s head glowed a bright, blood red spear. He raised his head much like he had done in the infirmary, and the squabbling girls knelt for Lavinia. ‘All hail Lavinia Temple, daughter of Ares.’  
Lavinia stayed with us for the rest of the tour, which was mostly watching campers train until the sun started to set half an hour later. In the fading russet light, we crossed the camp to the amphitheater, taking a seat on one of the front most logs. I leaned on Daisy as the light dimmed, and my head fell on her shoulder as the Apollo cabin, including Alexander, began to sing.  
__________

As the singing of the campfire died down, Chiron cleared his throat.  
‘May the unclaimed come forward’ he announced, and we all, apart from Alexander and Lavinia, got up from our logs and stood. We made up most of the group but were not the only ones listening to Chiron’s words. ‘Olympians, we call on you to remember your oath and claim your children this evening.’ One by one, like fireflies lighting up the night, bright symbols appeared over people’s heads, glowing softly in the half light. I looked to my left at Daisy and George’s owls, and to my right at Kitty’s dove and Amina’s caduceus. I committed the intricate star wheel above me to memory, before my gaze fell to Beanie. She looked about her, crestfallen, as the symbols began to flicker and fade, yet the air above her was clear and empty. She took in the stares she was receiving, and Chiron’s perplexed look, before running from the campfire.

We started to move in the direction Beanie had run to when we found ourselves being blocked by Mr D. He frowned.  
‘You’ve been claimed’ he stated shortly. ‘That means you go with your cabins for the rest of the night. I’ll send some other numbskulls to go find Miss Marmalade.’ he told us rudely. I felt my fists clench but before I could say anything, Lavinia stormed up to him.  
‘You idiot! We’ve just learned that monsters exist and that we’re monster magnets, and you’re leaving Beanie on her own in the forest, instead of letting us go get her!’ she raged, a fire in her eyes. Mr D looked unbothered.  
‘Do you even hear yourself? You’re untrained campers who just got here and you think you can just waltz off on your own and hope to survive?’ he scoffed ‘luckily for Miss Mango, she only ran in the direction of the beach. It’s within the border, she’s perfectly safe.’ with that he turned to the other campers ‘Carmen Rio, go find the girl before she does something silly’ he ordered. Clarisse stood up, shooting a mildly sympathetic look to us.  
‘Yes sir’

We tried to argue against Mr D’s decision, but we didn’t have many supporters. Chiron told us that the search could last well into the night, when the cleaning harpies came out to expel anyone outside without permission. We were all extremely angry, but were forced to back down as the head campers came to take us to our cabins. It was just then that it dawned on me. The symbol that had flashed over my head was different to Daisy, different to Amina, different to Kitty. I would be separate from my friends for the first time since … since before Deepdean. I hadn’t realised it, but during my time in the Lotus, I became closer to them than ever. As the head camper of the Hecate Cabin lead me away, I felt like I was in pieces, and the smallest piece was with myself.  
Sitting at the window of the Hecate cabin, I watched the sun go down, recounting the events of the evening. The head camper had introduced herself as Lou Ellen, and I was the daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic and crossroads. Daisy was a daughter of Athena, along with George, and her cabin was a fair distance from mine, it would be difficult to sneak out to under the conditions. I dug my casebook out from my bag, and with a heavy heart, recounted what had happened since we left the Lotus. I peered out across the ring of cabins and tried to sketch the layout of the camp from what I remembered. I sat there at the window seat, writing and sketching and remembering until I fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I dug my casebook out from my bag, and with a heavy heart, recounted what had happened since we left the Lotus. I peered out across the ring of cabins and tried to sketch the layout of the camp from what I remembered. I sat there at the window seat, writing and sketching and remembering until I fell asleep.

Sitting at the window seat, I felt a sudden chill fall through the air, but when I looked behind me I was alone. Too alone. With shaking legs I stood and crossed the cabin to Lou Ellen’s bunk. Nothing. Her bed was neatly made, as though it had never been slept in, and as I swept my gaze across the rest of the cabin I found the other beds the same way.

‘Hazel’ a voice called, and I whipped round, scrambling for something to defend myself with. I snatched a book from the large bookshelf that spanned the side wall of the cabin and held it up like a shield, turning to face the noise. In the middle of the deserted cabin stood a peculiar woman. ‘Hazel’ she repeated calmly, raising a pale hand, and I saw that it trailed ivory tendrils of smoke that curled round the dogs that sat by her side. ‘I am not her to hurt you’ she said, and with a start I realised who I was faced with. ‘You’re Hecate aren’t you?’ I found myself asking ‘You’re my mother.’

She nodded solemnly, looking behind her at into the wall of white fog that cloaked her.   
‘Let me show you something Hazel.’ She said, without turning round. I walked forward cautiously, until I was standing next to her, the white fog swirling and starting to shimmer. I looked towards it, and was shocked by what I saw. 

Moving quickly and in monochrome, as though taken from snatches of a memory, I saw the lives people lived, distant from the Lotus. I saw graduation at Deepdean, I saw missing persons signs and with a heart stopping jolt, I realised that our funeral wasn’t the only one held early. Hecate seemed to sense my despair and paused the frame, confirming my worst fears.    
Etched into the cold stone slab, was the name ‘Felix Mountfitchet’. Uncle Felix was dead. As the vision continued, I sank further into despair, because he had been murdered.

I woke in a cold sweat, last night’s dream throwing the world off balance. I blinked the fog of sleep out of my eyes and stood shakily from the window seat I had fallen asleep in, looking around frantically and picking up my fallen casebook. Lou Ellen glanced over, looking at me concernedly. She motioned for Rin to move ahead to breakfast and walked carefully to where I stood. I looked at her, and and sat on one of the nearby beds.   
‘Do demigods have … real dreams?’ I enquired quietly, wrapping my arms around my stomach. Lou Ellen leaned back, joining me on the bunk.   
‘Quite often actually, it’s one of the defining aspects. Some parents use dreams to communicate with children, did Hecate talk to you?’ she replied, guessing the reason of my curiosity. I nodded at her, curling in on myself.    
‘I need to find Daisy.’ I mumbled quietly, before repeating it louder. ‘I need to find Daisy.’

Before Lou Ellen could stop me, I was out the door, running towards the Athena cabin. 

The outside of the cabin was a white marble, decorated with ornate gold and a red roof. I opened the door and found eleven or twelve people, all around our age, sitting inside. Daisy was sitting amongst a pile of history books poring over huge crumpled maps, when she looking up at me only slightly dishevelled. My gaze caught on one of the books of population, and I grabbed it and began to flick through, plopping on the floor next to Daisy. I continued flipping rapidly through the documented deaths until I found what I had, up until this moment, did not fully believe as true. Uncle Felix had been murdered and I realised, peering closer as the cold weight in my stomach grew, that his death was unsolved.

Daisy had finally given up on trying to catch my attention and snatched the book from me, scanning the pages to see what I had been so intently looking at. Her face paled almost imperceptibly, then her expression went blank. Setting the book down almost robotically, she walked out of the Athena cabin, ignoring the protests of George and the other campers.

Muttering a half hearted apology to the Athena campers over my shoulder, I ran out of the cabin looking for Daisy and eventually found her at the canoe lake, looking out at the calm water. 

My legs trembling, I sat down beside her. She didn’t acknowledge my arrival, still staring blankly at the lake. Her body was unmoving, like a statue. I could tell how hard she was trying not to break down.

‘Daisy-’ I began, but she turned her head sharply towards me, tears welling in her blue eyes. 

‘Hazel’, she said quietly, ‘Detective Society Meeting. Just the two of us. I hope you brought a casebook.’.

Ten minutes later, we were sitting in the back row of the amphitheatre. In my hand was a silver notebook, gifted to me by Beanie last Christmas - or, technically christmas 1937. 

Daisy paced up and down the steps, trying to get her brain into detective mode.    
’Right, Watson. This is the most … personal case the Detective Society has ever come across. We need to put our feelings and attachments aside and approach the case with an unbiased mind. Is that clear?’ I could tell that she was trying to convince herself that more than me. 

I looked up at her.    
‘Very. So what do we do now? We can’t solve this without the girls, or George and Alex.’

She looked up at the overcast sky. ‘Right. I suppose we better tell them. Should we hold an emergency meeting at breakfast?’

I nodded, then got up and threw my arms around her. ‘It’s going to be alright, Daisy. We’re going to solve this and we’re going to bring the killer to justice.’ 

I returned to the Hecate Cabin to find Lou Ellen and Rin closing the door, about to make their way to breakfast. I walked with them quietly, ignoring their curious looks. When we reached the Mess Hall I began to move to the table where Daisy and George sat - barely processing the fact that they weren’t seated with the others - when Lou Ellen put out a hand in front of me. She gestured towards an empty bench at the end of the hall, and I walked towards it, feeling dejected.

With a longing glance at the other tables, I sat at the isolated Hecate table, that was surrounded by an almost walled sense of quiet, while I listened to the chatter that drifted from other, larger, happier tables. I caught Daisy’s eye and put my hand out on the table, making sure it was in her view, then I began to drum my fingers against the wood.

_ ‘ D I D - Y O U - T E L L - G E O R G E ’ _ I tapped in Morse Code, tilting my head towards her somewhat sternly. She sighed visibly, rubbing her fingers against the more worn wood of the Athena table, before tapping out her reply.   
_ ‘ N O T - Y E T - , I - H A V E N ‘ T - F O U N D - T H E - T I M E ’  _ she answered, wincing at my outraged expression. Alexander and George, with their abnormally strong sense of hearing, caught on to what was happening and joined the conversation.

_ George: Haven’t had the time for what, Daisy _

_ Daisy: Be quieter Mukherjee, Pace can hear you _

_ Alexander: You’re changing the topic Daisy, what is going on _

_ Daisy: Bother you, I’ll tell you as soon as I can get away _

That was as far as we got before Malcolm Pace from the Athena Cabin intercepted our conversation with furious tappings of curse words that made my ears burn.

Keeping my head down for the rest of breakfast, I plotted what we could do from there. The punishment for skipping activities seemed rather trivial in comparison to what was going on, so as I scraped the remainder of my breakfast into the flames, I motioned to Kitty, Amina, Lavinia and Beanie - who had been located by Clarisse last night and placed in the Hermes Cabin - to join us in the amphitheatre.

We had just seated ourselves in the back row when Daisy came striding in, followed by a peeved looking Alexander and George. They looked at me exasperatedly.   
‘She won’t tell us a single thing’ Alexander moaned to me, flopping down next to me dramatically on the bench. I turned to face him, steeling myself.   
‘I’m not sure you want to know.’

__________

After Daisy had finished explaining she sat back down, looking to see what we thought. Amina shook herself out of her stupor first, staggering forward to give Daisy a hug. After that we piled onto her, with whispered words of comfort. Then George cleared his throat.   
‘So, what shall we do first?’ He enquired, looking to us. Daisy blinked.   
‘Pardon?’ She asked in confusion, which seemed to amuse George. He jumped out of where he sat to stand in front of us.   
‘Well, the Honourable Daisy Wells I know wouldn’t let a time difference of a couple decades stop her’ he said with a small smirk. ‘What’s our plan?’

Daisy stared at him, stunned. 

‘Well’, she said, ‘we should probably start by learning as much about the circumstances surrounding his death as possible. We need to look at every report, every file, every book we can get our hands on. Of course, the whole ‘stuck in the future’ situation might cause some difficulty’.

‘Don’t you think maybe we should tell Chiron?’ Kitty cut in. As soon as she finished speaking, the sound of hooves resounded through the amphitheatre, and Chiron looked at us with an annoyed frown.  
‘That would be rather helpful Ms Freebody.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I do not know what is up with Malcolm


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘Don’t you think maybe we should tell Chiron?’ Kitty cut in. As soon as she finished speaking, the sound of hooves resounded through the amphitheatre, and Chiron looked at us with an annoyed frown.  
> ‘That would be rather helpful Ms Freebody.’

Beanie jumped. Chiron had appeared out of nowhere. He coughed again, his white tail swishing from side to side.   
‘I had expected that you would sneak off, but this was somewhat sooner that I had anticipated’ he told us, sounding disappointed. ‘However,’ he continued, upon seeing our distress, ‘it does seem that you have important matters to attend to. I will allow you until lunch to do what you wish, and then you  _ must _ return to your activities.’ Our expressions brightened and as soon Chiron left, we started making plans in a rush.

Amongst the flurry of planning and mapping with the books George and Daisy had brought from their cabin, I saw Beanie shuffle away from the group. Kitty noticed as well, and, trying not to disturb the others, we crept over to where she sat.

Beanie was curled up in one of the back shadows of the amphitheatre, looking over her knees at the chaos of plans Daisy and George had laid out. Kitty perched next to her, and we sat in silence for some time. She drew her knees close to her chest.   
‘Why do I always feel like I’m on the outside?’ she asked in a small voice, not meeting our eyes. Kitty leaned on her shoulder, and they watched Daisy and George sparking off each other as usual.   
‘I don’t think you’re on the outside Beans, your parent just seems like an idiot.’ she offered, sticking her tongue out at the sky when a fork of lightning arced perfectly over the amphitheatre. I snorted, nudging Kitty’s shoulder.   
‘Maybe you shouldn’t insult the all-powerful immortals while we’re at a camp dedicated to them.’ I replied, and she conceded with a shrug, pulling me over to join them.

‘But what if I don’t  _ have _ a godly parent?’ Beanie continued, her big brown eyes shining up at us. ‘What if I’m just here because I… I tagged along with the rest of you?’

Kitty knelt down next to her, putting her arm around her shoulder.    
‘Beans’, she said softly ‘you are the most special person here. There’s no way that you could have even gotten to camp without some godly blood in you. I’m sure that those silly gods will wise up and claim you very soon.’

The air went deadly cold for a second before returning to normal.    
‘ _ Kitty _ ’ I hissed, my eyes flicking round the amphitheatre as the temperature dropped several degrees. Daisy, Alexander, Amina, Lavinia and George seemed to catch on and they took a step back from their work, standing back to back. Lavinia pulled two daggers from her boots and slipped gracefully into a fighting stance. Kitty pulled us to our feet, and we backed into everyone else, watching the air turn dark, our breath misting in the icy stillness.

Suddenly a bright light swept through the structure and I shaded my eyes, raising an arm in front of me. The light burst gold as it touched the foot of the stage and we turned towards it in terror. The falling fragments of gold swirled into a pillar that settled to reveal a man in a gleaming red car.

He lifted his sunglasses from his face and grinned at us.  
‘Small demigods!’ he exclaimed excitedly ‘Okay so who’s been insulting Zeus, eh?’ he asked, taking on a more serious tone. Most of us lowered our makeshift weapons, feeling perplexed, but Daisy stepped forward, hiding Amina’s pin behind her back.  
‘Who are you?’ she asked, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible. He didn’t seem convinced.  
‘You’re a daughter of Athena, lady, I know not to underestimate you.’ he assured her, and with a flick of his hand, the pin concealed behind her back soared back into Amina’s hair, which fell back prettily in it’s previous hairstyle.

He paced up and down the steps of the amphitheatre. ‘My name is Apollo’, he said, flashing a smile so bright I had to shut my eyes. ‘God of the Sun, musical genius, and father of this one’s. He pointed a perfectly manicured finger at Alexander. Apollo walked over and gave him a pat on the back. ‘I hear you’re my son’ he said, confidently. ‘Of course, you’re not nearly as amazingly talented or good-looking as myself, but I must admit, you did inherit some of my sparkling intelligence’.

George’s eyes darkened, and I was irate, but before we could do anything Apollo had moved on. He wandered around the amphitheatre rambling about his greatness when another fork of lightning twisted through the doors. Apollo snapped his fingers.    
‘Ah, yes, the offenders. You.’ He proclaimed, pointing to Kitty. ‘rather forward of you to call us  _ silly _ . The little lady over there’s parent is … unavailable right now, and will continue to remain unavailable for as long as possible!’ he informed us brightly, hopping back into his car and disappearing in another column of light.

The column of light solidified again, just before it had fully disappeared, and Apollo raised his sunglasses.   
‘By the way, that thing you’re looking for, Hera knows where it is.’ He told us, winking, before finally leaving in a final flash.

I glanced through the arches of the amphitheatre, and realised that it seemed to be getting late. Alexander, as if reading my mind, spoke up.   
‘It’s nearly midday, we should go to the Big House before Chiron comes looking for us again.’ Without much more discussion, we gathered up the maps and books and set off for the Big House.

__________

The eight of us piled onto the sofa in front of the Big House fireplace, and Daisy was about to explain what we wanted to do when Mr D spoke up.   
‘Now, ladies and gents’, he said abruptly. ‘We had a rather unexpected visit from Apollo today. That pesky ray of sunshine happens to be one of my  _ least _ favourite gods. So which one of you I am I turning into a dolphin?’

After a few moments of stillness, Kitty raised her hand hesitantly.   
‘I was insulting some of the gods. They still haven’t claimed Beanie, and they’re being quite silly about it, I think.   
Another clap of thunder echoed through the air and I shot Kitty a dark look. She went red. ‘Erm..no offence to anyone, of course.’

Mr D’s eyes darkened.    
‘Don’t let it happen again, Ms Featherford. I mean it. Next time, I will not be as lenient.’

Daisy stood up, brushing invisible dust off her shorts, and looked to Chiron.

‘Chiron, sir’, she said sweetly, ‘I was wondering if it would be possible for us to take a trip? We’ve make some … discoveries since we arrived here, and we would all really appreciate being allowed to do some investigation.’

Chiron looked at her sympathetically.    
‘Ms. Wells, I’m afraid that’s not possible. Campers are only allowed to leave the grounds under quite rare circumstances, or when a quest has been ordered, and they are normally well trained. What’s the reasoning behind this?’

Daisy took a deep breath and - somewhat reluctantly - explained our situation. Chiron remained silent for a short while.

‘I see. This must be a very confusing time for you all, what with the Lotus Casino and now all this. Let me make you a deal. If you all keep out of trouble and attend the camp activities for one week, I’ll allow you to visit our Oracle so you all can leave camp. Does that sound fair?’

Daisy looked back at us despairingly, and I stood up to take her hand.   
‘One week.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to punch Apollo I'd like to take the time to remind you that there is a line

**Author's Note:**

> We're going to add an assortment of oneshots to accompany this work, if you have any requests, please send them to @drinking-bleach or @deepdean-detectives on Tumblr!


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